Mad For You
by Jennyb793
Summary: Alyssa White wants to become an author. Her head has been filled with stories ever since she was little and she came to Storybrooke to escape the business of the city and hopefully find some inspiration. But what she finds is something else entirely. What will she do when she discovers that she may be a part of the stories she was always told. Will she believe?
1. Author's Note

**So I am having this wonderful inability to stop writing this week and I came across clips of the episode 'Hat Tricks' from Once Upon A Time. I have always liked the actor, Sebastian Stan (he's in my favorite movie **_**The Covenant**_** which I highly suggest watching if you haven't seen it) and I thought it would be fun to write a story where there was someone who could help the Hatter cope with his madness. So here we are. And this is the first story that I came up with a title for right away! (usually I have a super hard time with the title) So I'm excited :) Hope you guys enjoy!**

**P.S- I have not watched Once Upon A Time in a while so I apologize if I unintentionally make mistakes on the details from previous episodes. I plan to catch up soon as I can**


	2. Chapter 1

When I was little, my mother used to read me stories. Stories about love and magic. Fairy tales. I was told that she read them to me before I was even born. Which may be the reason why my head is so filled with stories. I came to Storybrooke to become a writer. I needed some time away from all of the hustle and bustle of the city. I was hoping that maybe a small town in the woods would be just what I needed to find some new ideas. But what I found was much different. Actually, he found me...

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The clock on the wall was starting to drive me nuts. How long had I been sitting there? I groaned in frustration. The page that I had been staring at was blank. It had been for the last hour and at the rate I was going it was not going to get filled. This was my first piece for the local paper and I had been assigned to write an article about world issues.

The problem was that I didn't care about world issues. I had seen plenty of those back in New York. That wasn't what I had come to Storybrooke to write about, but this job was the only thing keeping food on my table at this point so I decided it was best to take the offer.

There was a knock at the door and I jumped, knocking a glass off the desk and sending pens scattering everywhere.

"Shit!" I swore, dropping to my knees to clean up the mess. For the first time I glanced around the room, and I groaned as I realized what a mess it was. My apartment was not that big so most things were cramped together. The living room, my office, the dining room. Everything but the kitchen and bedroom were conjoined in two spaces. So as it was, not everything was as neat as I would have liked.

The knock came again and I lifted my head.

"Coming!" I called giving up on organizing the pens and instead just scooping them up and dumping them back into the coffee mug that served as my pen case. I made my way to the door, struggling with the lock for a moment before tugging it open to reveal my best friend.

"Marie!" I smiled opening the door more. "Come in!"

Marie smiled wide before strolling into the room. Marie Felicia and I had been best friends ever since I moved to Storybrooke. We had met on my first day in the new town, back when I had still been wandering aimlessly around looking for a job. I was frustrated and had given up for the time being and decided to take a walk down to the river. I was sitting by the bank, tossing rocks when there she was, seeming to appear out of nowhere.

"Hello." She had said, giving me that same big smile that I had come to know her for. Marie always seemed to be smiling. It was the one thing that kept you from being thrown off by her otherwise strange appearance. She had long hair, dark black except for the one streak of purple that ran through it, and these giant eyes that always seemed so curious.

At the moment those eyes were busy sweeping glances around my living area.

"I see you've cleaned." She said and I blushed in embarrassment.

"I meant to clean but I was too busy writing. Besides, you should be used to it by now."

"True." Marie said, settling down on my couch and sprawling her legs across the coffee table, ignoring the mess of newspapers and magazines that were littered across it.

"So what's up?" I asked, busying myself with clearing dishes off the kitchen table. "To what do I owe this lovely visit?"

"Nothing." Marie said, swiping the remote off the arm of the couch and starting to flip through channels. "I was bored."

I snorted a laugh. "I'm flattered."

"You should be." She shot me a cheeky smile. "I don't grace just everyone with my presence."

"Oh I'm well aware of that." I called from the kitchen. "It's only me who is lucky enough to see your smiling face everyday."

"This is true."

"Hey," I said, coming back into the living room so I didn't have to yell, "have you heard from Emma lately?"

Emma was another one of my good friends although she, unlike Marie, was not from StoryBrooke. I guess we shared that one thing in common.

"Yea. She called today actually, wanted to see if we wanted to go out for a drink or something. Said she could use a break."

I laughed again. "Who doesn't need a break? I could so go for a drink though. You in?"

"Hell yea." Marie clicked off the t.v., tossing the remote back onto the couch. "But first I say we get you out of this house."

And before I could say anything she grabbed my hand and tugged me into the hallway, slamming the door behind us. I had no idea what she had planned, but knowing Marie it would be somewhat of an adventure.


	3. Chapter 2

**Thank you guys for reviewing! This was more of one of my side stories so I was surprised by how many people told me they wanted to read more. I am sorry I haven't updated, like I said I haven't watched the show in a while so I was trying to decide whether or not to take the time to catch up- I literally have 11 episodes to watch to get to the Mad Hatter- or just push through & write this best I could (I chose the former so like I said I will do my best & I sincerely apologize for any mistakes) and then I was on vacation for a while. I'm back though and promise to do my best to update more :)**

"Alright," I said once we had settled into the car, "where to now?"

Marie shrugged and kept her eyes on the road as she pulled away from the curb. "I figure we could go explore a little."

"Explore." I echoed raising an eyebrow. Judging from how low the sun hung in the sky I was guessing that it was around eight o'clock and it was already starting to get dark. Knowing Marie her version of exploring could mean anything from checking out the local stores to wandering around aimlessly somewhere we shouldn't be. She always had a knack for getting into trouble.

Storybrooke was not big, still with Marie's crazy driving it took me a few minutes to figure out where we were going. When I did though, I shot her a look. "The woods? Really? Marie its already getting late, shouldn't we be checking where Emma is?"

"We will." She said, waving a hand at me dismissively. "After we go for a drive, I just want to go cruising."

"Cruising?" I wanted to say more but I realized that I might not mind looking around. As we drove, I gazed out the window, my eyes sweeping the woods. I was always naturally curious. It was the thing that had brought me to Storybrooke in the first place. I had grown up in New York and after college I had moved into an apartment of my own. But the city was all that I had known my entire life, and while some people would have taken comfort in this, it only made me restless.

Every day I worked, writing stories about far away worlds, places that I did not know. Then one day, I decided that I was done. I had spent far too much of my life trapped within the concrete buildings of this place and I wanted out. My restlessness was growing worse and worse each day, to the point where it affected my stories, and that combined with my own curiosity pushed me to leave.

I had no idea where to go at first. As much as I wrote about these other places in my own stories, I had never so much as stepped foot out of New York. All that I had ever needed was there: my family, my school, my job. But now I wanted to know what else was out there. There had to be more to the world than just this one city. So I got out a map, close my eyes, and pointed.

I had never heard of Storybrooke before, but that chance was the best one that I had ever taken. It had led me to my new life. I smiled at the thought, but then something flashed out of the corner of my eye, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I turned my head and was surprised to see someone walking through the forest. It was a man. He looked relatively young, somewhere in his late twenties I would guess, and was wearing a long dark coat. This in itself would not have distracted me too much- aside from my natural curiosity- except that I noticed he had something in his hand. It was a hat. One of those old fashion top hats that kids would place on snow mans or that Abe Lincoln wore.

_Huh__._ I thought. _I wonder why he has that._

As I watched, he settled down on a log, placing the hat on his lap and studying it as if he was trying to figure something out. Like the hat was a piece to a puzzle that he had yet to complete. I turned my head as the car passed by, craning my neck to keep him in sight but in a second we had rounded a bend and he was gone.

Marie finally turned her gaze to me and frowned when she saw the confused look on my face.

"Alyssa? What's up?" She asked. "You look stressed out, are you feeling okay?"

"Yea." I nodded, then shook my head to try and clear my thoughts. "I'm fine."

But even as we put more distance between us and the mysterious man, I still couldn't shake this feeling. The feeling that I had seen him somewhere before.

**Sorry this chapter is on the short side, I am going to get into the actual episode in the next chapter but for now I wanted to fill in some gaps before and tell you a little but about Alyssa and where she came from. Hope you enjoyed!**


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